The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 36 Attacked

At noon on the 7th day, the team leader He Qiang was in charge, and the mule and horse caravan that went more than 60 kilometers east of Bromo returned. Of the 10 mules, horses and carts that were originally brought along this way, only 7 came back.

Fortunately, these seven carts of mules and horses were all loaded with spices, and the pile was as high as one person.

When paying the account

The 3 silver coins I brought were all spent, leaving only 1031 silver coins, and a big hole of more than 8760 silver coins appeared in my account.

The reason

On the first night of the return trip, while sleeping near the woods, I was attacked by local bandits.

Not only were four people injured on the spot, nine others were slightly or seriously injured. After the camp was broken through by bandits, five mules, horses and carts were robbed in the chaos.

After the team leader He Qiang led the people to repulse the bandits tenaciously, they ventured to pursue them for a while in the night and desperately snatched back two mules and horses.

In view of the dark night, unclear sight, and the large number of bandits, it is more dangerous to continue chasing. If something goes wrong, they will be destroyed by the bandits.

He Qiang, the squad leader, considered giving up the pursuit again and again and led his troops back to the temporary campsite to stay until dawn.

After listening to the report, Feng Guohui looked serious and considered, while He Qiang, who was standing below, had an uneasy look on his face.

He is the leader of the mule and horse caravan going east, and his main responsibility is security protection. The caravan suffered heavy losses when attacked, and he cannot shirk his responsibility.

If the choice of camping sites is more prudent, if the sentries at night are more effective, if the preventive measures are more complete, and if the vigilance is higher...

However, it's too late to say anything now.

The atmosphere in the room fell into a suffocating silence. Just as He Qiang was getting more frightened, Feng Guohui raised his head and glanced around. Said;

"Aqiang, if something happens to this caravan, you can't escape the involvement. Your future promotions and rewards will be greatly affected.

For the time being, you are allowed to perform meritorious deeds and see the consequences.

This time, 4 brothers were killed, 9 were injured, and half of the strength of a detachment was lost.

The injured brother stayed in Bromo Town to recuperate from his injuries. It was not advisable to continue the long journey, which would worsen the injury. We would wait until the injury was healed.

As for the brothers who died in battle, you should be compensated for the compensation and the family members should be taken care of. It is up to you to take care of the aftermath and withdraw silver coins from the account according to regulations.

In addition, after this incident occurred, was there anything suspicious found on the bodies of the killed gangsters?

Also, do you have any doubts about this group of bandits that suddenly appeared? "

Seeing that Feng Guohui did not insist on pursuing his own responsibility, but chose to let himself be blamed and meritorious service, He Qiang was inexplicably moved. He thought about it carefully and answered;

“Master Ding, I thought about this again and again later and found it very strange.

On the last day of our caravan, we went deep into the lower reaches of the Sesame Nu River, which is the last plain valley in the eastern mountainous area. It is the territory of the Tian family, a traditional Baba and Nyonya family.

More than a dozen surrounding villages and several plantations all belong to the Tian family and are their farm laborers.

Originally, we had collected most of the spices along the way. Although the Tian family had a large amount of spices, the price was high, so the conversation was not very pleasant.

In the end, they only received more than two carts of goods, and they were unwilling to send their own mules, horses and carts to the Brahmin town for trading.

Seeing that the day was approaching, Mr. Wang prepared to return after discussing with me.

Who ever thought

We encountered this group of bandits at night on the first day of our return. They numbered between one and two hundred people. They launched a surprise attack as the night approached, catching us off guard.

After calming down, I immediately organized a counterattack.

The Swordsmen and Shielders fought desperately to hold on to the front, and the Musketeers fired five or six rounds of volleys, killing dozens of gangsters on the spot, thus curbing the enemy's arrogance.

In the subsequent pursuit, more than ten people were killed sporadically, for a total of 41 enemies, and the rest fled without a trace.

Afterwards, an inventory was carried out and it was found that the contents of three mules, horses and carts were lost.

Some suspicious points were also seen from the corpses of these gangsters. The corpses of seven or eight gangsters were all wearing wide-mouthed cloth shoes and their skin color was relatively fair, which is a characteristic of the local Chinese. Most Javanese natives don’t wear shoes, and there are no top rings or needles for holding shoes at home, so I suspect that it has something to do with the local Tian family.

Apart from them, no other family could organize a large group of bandits with one or two hundred people, and most of them were equipped with cold weapons such as swords and guns. "

"Oh... the Tian family is really brave." After hearing these words, Feng Guohui basically confirmed that the Tian family was behind the scenes.

He had no more evidence and didn't need it.

In Feng Guohui's opinion, it was greed that blinded the Tian family's aspirations, and they brazenly intercepted the caravan's goods.

You must know that the value of spices itself is extremely high. They are more expensive than gold in Europe. Even if the price of the origin in Java is pushed to the extreme, it is still very expensive.

A carriage of about 2600 pounds of spices would cost between 2700 and silver coins locally.

Since the Age of Discovery

With the opening of large-scale sea transportation and the continuous import of spices from Eastern colonies, the price of spices from the East dropped sharply.

Even so, there are still huge profits of more than ten times.

How expensive were monopolized spices in the Middle Ages?

When cloves arrive in Europe from their place of origin, their value is ten thousand times higher, and wealthy people like princes and ministers cannot afford them.

Take pepper as an example. Stealing a handful of pepper is equivalent to robbing a bank.

The steak that Europeans love to eat, sprinkled with a little black pepper, is a supreme delicacy that only nobles can afford.

Pepper is actually a relatively cheap spice. Cinnamon, cardamom, long pepper, and cloves are all much more expensive than pepper.

But for this relatively cheap spice, in the mid-12th century in England, one pound required seven days' wages of the King's workers. This amount of money could be exchanged for at least one pig.

Europe at that time

When trading pepper, you will close the doors and windows, hold your breath, and then use a magnifying glass to carefully check whether any unscrupulous traders have mixed silver shavings in it to increase the weight.

If you sneeze accidentally, most of your work will be in vain.

Although the current price of spices is not that exaggerated, in this era without chemical fertilizers, the yield of completely relying on wild spices is very low.

A mere one or two carriages of spices may be the annual output of a certain spice plantation.

The entire Dutch East Indies colony is so large, including Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, and its annual output is only that of twenty or thirty sailing cargo ships.

A ship is calculated based on four to five hundred tons, and the total output does not exceed 10,000 tons.

The long sea route of tens of thousands of kilometers from Nanyang to Europe has gone through 8 to 9 months of stormy seas and layers of taxation by various countries along the way. The actual output that can reach Europe is less than 6000 tons.

With the huge population of hundreds of millions in Europe today, each person's hands are evenly distributed to the point where they are no bigger than a fingernail. Most Europeans have never seen such precious items as spices in their lives, let alone used them.

Back to topic

Feng Guohui immediately decided to take action on the so-called Tian family to once again shock the local monsters and ghosts so that they would not have any thoughts that they should not have.

He commanded;

"I already know the general situation. You can go down and rest while you wait. We need to properly provide for the disabled men, stabilize the confidence of our subordinates, and prevent rumors from damaging our military morale."

"I obey, my lord, I am so ashamed of myself." He Qiang and Mr. Wang bowed with shameful expressions and clasped their fists, then quietly retreated.

Feng Guohui sat on the spot and did not move. Instead, he gently tapped the chair handle with his fingers, and his fierce murderous intent flashed away.

He was not ready to take action now, but wanted to wait until the West Road caravan in charge of Mai Laowen returned and gathered all its strength.

When a lion fights a rabbit, it also requires a full blow.

(End of this chapter)